River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-05-19
Napo.eon, Won Moltke. ana Grant.

all )"
Napo.eon, Won MIoitke, ana Grant.
/ never knew a man who could tell
| what he knew any better than Gen. w.
| L. Sherman can, writes q correspondent
| OF the New York gr, btne When was
in Washington never failed to be pres
ent at public hearing on military mat
| tiers if Gen. Sherman was To make a
| statement or be examined. That which
| in the mouth OF almost any other officer
! of the army would be bald details, and
confusing figures became in his as in
teresting rs popular lecture. And in
| private conversation he is equally enter
tanning, especially when the topic is the
army or the military heroes of this and
other lands.
find in my notebook an entry made
| i'm the spring of 1880. which was recall
| ed by reading the recent speech of Count
Won Moltke in favor of increasing the
already enormous army OF Germany,
and the comments of the American and
| foreign press upon it. | spent an hour
one evening in a small company of
which Gen. Sherman was one, and
when bv general consent he had been
allowed to do most of the talking. He
began by comparing the military abili-
ties of Napoleon, Won Moltke and Grant,
and said in substance:
"Napoleon's prominent characters
tic was his intellect As a soldier his
strength Law in his power Of convergeuce
and concentration. lie knew his gen
erals and his men thoroughly. lie knew
sl,..N a -. 4
what he had a right to expect of them.
lie knew just how long it would tako
body Of troops to 90 from one point to
another. and he would order them from
widely different stations and would plan
their arrival at given place SO sccur-
ntely as TO make his combinations ir-
resistiblc. He was like a lens which
brings the rays Of light together at one
point
Napoleon ought to have won the
battle OF Waterloo, and would have
done so il it had been fought on an
open field and if the allies had net been
on tho defensive. II it had been an
equal contest. or one in which the allies
had made the attack upon Napoleon, he
would have got upon their flank. cut
their lines of communication, and whip
ped Wellington. Napoleon did not un-
derstand the English character; he did
not know how stolid and sullenly stub
born the English soldiers could be. The
Germans and others whom he had
fought generally became panic-stricken
before him. He did not suppose that
anything could resist the Old Guard
when they made charge
''Non Moltke is man OF entirely diff
ferent genius. He has an infinite
knowledge OF details. He knows how
many people there are n every part of
Europe; how many horses, mules, cattle.
pigs, and chickens they have; where all
tho roads are aud their conditions at
different seasons of the vear; all the
rivers and the best places 10 ford them;
where all the bridges are, and whether
they are OF stone, iron, or wood. He
knows his army as thoroughly as he
does the country. and it is to his ability
TO put this knowledge to use that lie
owes his success"
Someone in the company asked Gen.
Sherman if he thought if Napoleon was
alive to-day-ISS0-hc could organizs a
French army that could whip Prussia.
tie replied: Il think be could, but he
would need three or four years to do it
in. An effective army of about $50, 900
men would be required. and to COM
mand it Napoleon would have to create
thirteen tirst-class generals.
or Gen. Grant Gen. Sherman said:
ellis Distinguishing characteristic is his
unbounded faith in his own ultimate
success. | never saw anything like it.
If Grant was to have an arm and leg
shot of and bullet through his body,
and should be lying helpless on the bat
tle-tield he would still fully expect to
get up, mount bis horse, and win the
Gay. And such absolute belief in ulti-
mate success insures it
A prominent republican statesman
who was present said that, as much as
he admired Gen. Grants military genius,
he believed that history would not re-
cord unqualified approval of that gen
erals campaign from the Rappahan-
mock to the James. 1t was beyond all
precedent bloody campaign-need-
lessly so. The battles OF the Wilder
ness and Cold Harbor were terrible af-
fairs. The losses in that campaign, no
believed, were greater than those of
NAPOLEON in his disastrous winter re-
treat from Moscow. With Norfolk and
Fortress Monroe and Newport News in
our undisputed possession, on che south,
and with such navy as we had, Gen.
Grant ought to have accomplished what
he did without the enormous losses that
he sustained.
Gen Sherman defended Gen. Grant
and said: The slaughter was great |
but necessary. Most of it ought to have
taken place during the two previous
years. Gen. Grant was unfortunate in
falling heir to the blunders of his prede-
cessors, and in having to pay the penal !
tY of those blunders"